WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – Radford dropped its season opener at William & Mary, 70-40, Sunday afternoon from Kaplan Arena. Red-shirt senior Kymesha Alston (Hampton, Va./Manhattan) paced the Highlanders with a 16-point, 12-rebound double-double.

Box Score

The Tribe, who shot 50 percent for the game (32-64), jumped out to an early 21-4 lead and did not look back. William & Mary's Taysha Pye led all scorers with 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the floor with Janine Aldridge adding 11 points.

Junior Kaylyn Crosier (South Charleston, W.Va./S. Charleston), making her first collegiate start, chipped in with a career-best 11 points for the Highlanders and also pulled down five boards.

“I'm very proud of Cro's (Kaylyn Crosier) performance today,” said head coach Tajama Abraham Ngongba. “I always knew she had it (leadership) in her. She did a great job stepping into the point guard role in the second half.”

Behind 48.6 percent shooting and a combined 20 points from and Taysha Pye (11) and Janine Aldridge (9), William & Mary jumped out to a 36-14 halftime lead. Radford, which started 1-13 from the field, finished the half shooting just 15.6 percent. Alston tallied eight of the Highlanders' 14 first half points.

The Tribe raced out to an early 21-4 lead in the first 9:22 of the game. Aldridge scored nine of her points during the game-opening run. Pye dropped in four during the run and added seven straight points to push Williams and Mary's to its largest lead of the half (32-8) with 2:41 to play.

“With several new faces, we were never able to shake off the pregame jitters, missing a lot of early shots. It was not what we were looking for, but it is something that can be fixed. I have the confidence in our ladies that we can improve on the mistakes we made today.”

William & Mary pushed its lead to 30 points (48-18) four minutes into the second half and maintained at least that margin the rest of the contest.

The Highlanders struggled to shoot the ball hitting just 24.3 percent (17-70) from the floor and 15.4 percent (2-13) from three-point land.

The Tribe controlled the glass, out rebounding the Highlanders, 56-35, led by Emily Correal's game-best 15 caroms. Katherine DeHenzel and Tiffany Benson chipped in with eight and seven rebounds respectively.

The Highlanders return to action on Saturday, Nov. 21 for their home opener against Mount St. Mary's. Tip-off at the Dedmon Center is scheduled for 7 p.m.